A kinder, gentler philosophy of success | Alain de Botton
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it in discussions of wealth, status and the moral blame placed on the unsuccessful.
What it is
Alain de Botton gives a TED talk questioning how we define success and failure. He argues that snobbery and the assumption that outcomes are fully earned make career anxiety worse.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2009 to 2021.
What Hacker News said
Recommends andreyf · 2009-09 · on “A Fixed Income Is a Sucker Bet”
the upside to the variable income lifestyle is a relatively small proportion of people living the glamorous lifestyle that Pavlina is selling but the downside is the much larger number of people who are barely scraping by making ends meet on the same system While this is true, I don't think the assumption that most of the people who end up on top somehow deserve their success and those on the bottom deserve their failures is correct. More to the point, a moral system built on this is is cruel, damaging to one's psyche, and a bad way to motivate people to create things. Alain De Botton gives a very eloquent TED talk about this [1], which is much more interesting than this Black Swan pep talk
Cites bootload · 2010-08 · on “Wealth anorexia a.k.a. hating yourself because you're not Larry Ellison”
"... How many people make a serious commitment to becoming a billionaire, research how to do it, manage their time, and actively try? I'll wager - not too many try, and quite a lot of those who seriously try succeed...." Success or failure that is earned ignores the reality of an individuals station in life ~ [this video] [0] As for money, "be careful what you wish for" . [0] Alain de Botton: "A kinder, gentler philosophy of success" TED 2009 ~ [LINK]
Cites munificent · 2021-05 · on “Writing books is not really a good idea”
> Did it used to be easier to make a living as an author? One of the dominant subjective experiences of living today is the sensation that any possible amazing kind of life is right there and it is only up to us to reach out to pluck it. You go on Instagram and see people living blissful lives of travel in gorgeous locales while talking about how affordable it is. That random dude who wrote a series of posts on some story-telling Reddit ends up getting it optioned by Hollywood and is now a major screenwriter. The sea shanty Tik-Tok'er is a major label recording artist. Our culture's positive values of egalitarianism and opportunity say that whatever you want your life to be can be, if only y